Parliament postpones EU-U.S. trade vote

STRASBOURG — The European Parliament has postponed a vote to endorse the EU’s negotiating position on a free trade deal with the United States after divisions within the second-biggest bloc in the assembly laid bare the depth of disquiet in Europe about controversial investor protection clauses.

Parliamentary leaders had hoped to agree on a resolution Wednesday backing the European Commission in the talks — and trumpeted the recent approval of a fragile compromise in its International Trade Committee (INTA) as a sign that negotiations could at last move forward. Although Parliament’s approval is not essential at this stage, it is considered vital for the project’s success.

Instead, strong opposition from many members of the Socialists & Democrats (S&D) group and pressure from non-governmental organizations opposed to the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) made a broader agreement impossible to achieve before Wednesday’s planned vote.

Under a deluge of more than 200 amendments from MEPs, the Parliament’s president, Martin Schulz, decided Tuesday to send the text of the resolution back to INTA.

On Wednesday morning, MEPs voted in plenary session also to postpone their debate on the measure, with 183 in favor and 181 against the delay.

The sudden change of plans illustrates just how controversial TTIP has become in Europe. At the G7 summit earlier this week, U.S. President Barack Obama and German Chancellor Angela Merkel urged a rapid conclusion to the trade talks.

Earlier Tuesday, MEPs received an email from Kristian Knudsen, the European Parliament’s director general for the presidency, saying that because of the large number of amendments, Schulz had decided “to ask the committee to meet to consider the amendments and requests tabled to the plenary. Therefore, the plenary vote on the report, scheduled for noon tomorrow, Wednesday, will note take place.”

Emma McClarkin, a British member of the parliamentary group European Conservatives & Reformists (ECR), said it was bad news for a trade deal that she believes would benefit consumers and businesses across the EU. “The Parliament was ready to vote on its position but President Schulz has pulled the vote to save the Socialist group’s blushes,” she said.

“This is a complete embarrassment for the Socialists & Democrats group,” said MEP Christofer Fjellner from the European People’s Party. “They screwed up the resolution so much so that they had to call in Schulz with his extraordinary authority to change the agenda already set by plenary. In my 11 years in this house, I cannot remember something like this happening.”

MEP Bernd Lange of the S&D group, the INTA chairman, said, “We stand ready to vote and fight for a resolution which is shaped according to our values. But we accept the decision of the president and will continue to work on gathering support for our position.”

Members of the assembly’s two largest political blocs have struggled over the past week to keep together a fragile deal as disputes simmered, especially within the S&D, over how to reach a compromise amendment on the so-called Investor-State Dispute Settlement Mechanism (ISDS), a private arbitration system now standard in many trade deals. Critics worry about the implications of allowing companies in one country to sue governments in another country if an investment runs into problems.

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Parlament European will have to assume their political responsabilities and by the end of the current posture of cooperation the best scenery is a fair and open process TTIP

Posted on 6/10/15 | 12:13 PM CET

James Henry

The sooner this diabolical treaty is ditched the better.

Posted on 6/10/15 | 12:40 PM CET

Ton Sonneveldt

The opposition to TTIP in Europe has many grounds.
Firstly many people fear the growing power of big corporations over elected governments in a globalizing world where government can be “bought” like many votes in the American Congress. The investor state dispute settlement (ISDS) is one more format to institutionalize the power of big companies to be able to press democratically elected governments to vote for policies they favor. In Europe (and the US) we have a well-established legal system where courts can well set disputes between investors and states and therefore many people see no other reason for the ISDS than favoring the power of investors over the democratic decisions of government.
Secondly globalization isn’t so popular anymore. After the banking crisis in 2008 where to many banks were too big to fail and had to be saved by taxpayer’s money, many people realized that globalization is good for shareholders in big banks but also bad for a sound national or regional economic policy. Ordinary citizens pay the price by the current austerity measures for salving the unregulated banking sector. If you see how Greece is now being pressed to cut wages and pensions, health care and education, only to bring more profits to bank shareholders, you can understand that more globalization (TTIP) is perceived with suspicion.
Thirdly: many people don’t believe the propaganda of the European Commission on the expected benefits of TTIP. There have been many studies to point out that the data they use are not correct. As long as the European Commission only is in favor of more free trade and is not also favoring a social policy inside of the TTIP framework more and more people will not be supportive of TTIP.
Luckily more and more European parliamentarians see this writing on the wall.

Posted on 6/10/15 | 12:45 PM CET

barry ward

Nicely put ( Ton Sonneveldt ) I would add :- that a vote against this deal is not a vote against business. This deal is about “NOT BEING FAIR”. It is not at all embarrassing to call a confidence trick to properly account for its True Intentions!!!

Posted on 6/11/15 | 1:06 AM CET

sharoninthemiddle

Trade vote? But EU goods have already increased. By the way, butter is butter, even if it’s made in Germany.

Posted on 6/11/15 | 7:53 PM CET

Gordon Churchill

This is mixed if apparently promising news that TTIP will be recited by the EU. Is Taylor’s ‘Greens” comment correct? It implies he supports TTIP which is not The Green Party’s policy